A European mission set off from India with the goal of using two satellites flying precisely at millimeter level to simulate a solar eclipse to get a unique view at the Sun's enigmatic atmosphere.

At around 4:04 PM local time (10:34 GMT), the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission successfully launched from Sriharikota atop an Indian rocket. About 20 minutes later, mission control celebrated the spacecraft's successful separation from the rocket.

Studying the Sun's corona, the outermost layer of its atmosphere, which is normally only seen during a total solar eclipse when the Moon blocks the Sun's light, is the main goal of the Proba-3 mission.

Two satellites on the mission's half-ton spacecraft, which is now in Earth's orbit, will split out early next year.

After being split apart, the satellites will align themselves roughly 500 feet (150 meters) apart such that one can shadow the other.

The solar-powered satellites will travel around 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) from Earth to the Sun in a highly elliptical 19-hour orbit, operating autonomously and without the assistance of ground control direction.

The goal of this novel configuration is to offer previously unheard-of insights inside the Sun's corona.

For the other satellite in the Proba-3 mission to see and measure the Sun's corona from the shadow it creates, one of the spacecraft has a 1.4-meter (five-foot) shield that simulates the Moon.

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants Proba-3 to collect 10 to 12 hours of observational data per week over a two-year period, even though complete solar eclipses on Earth only last a few minutes and happen about 60 times every century.

The two satellites must continue to operate with a level of precision never before seen in such missions to achieve this lofty objective.

Despite being several million kilometers thick, the Sun's corona is still little understood, making this level of precision essential for productive research.

Given the Sun's extreme brightness, the corona is usually invisible to the unaided eye and conventional telescopes.